Everyone gravitates to the "classroom" for hacking and electronics stuff already. There's a bunch of reasons why it's the best spot for that, as stated above.

Because it's the default social/work area, for lack of a better one. Now that we've gained more space, our membership deserves a bigger work room.

The loungy stuff got taken out of there specifically to make more room for the activities JWB described.

Not sure if you were around when the furniture got moved to the basement, but that was not the most successful move ever because taking the couches out of the hacking area meant/means that they don't get used very often. The most the chairs/couches ever got used was when it was in the hacking room.

What else is needed to improve that space? I know air conditioning, but what else?

Better lighting -- florescent sucks. More room, big enough to fit 30+ people in comfort. Bring back the furniture. Get rid of the legacy equipment.

Why would we want to start from scratch in unfinished space when that room is already most of the way there?

I disagree that it's most of the way there. It's hot, bright, crowded, noisy, and uncomfortable. It's a terrible space.

Where is the electronics / hacking equipment that we need to make room for?

It got dumped down in the basement. What we really need the space for, however, is our members. It's not big enough for our group now.

Whew!! Okay, I just gutted and cleaned this machine, swapped both sanding pads and remounted it with the provided bolts. It cleaned up good, I'm happy with it.

2 problems.

1) Couldn't find a large enough hex wrench to properly mount those bolts so I did my best with a pliers. So somebody needs to finish that if they find the proper tool.

2) The miter platform for the disk (not belt) sander was snapped at a joint that mounts to the base. When I placed the two metal pieces together the seam appeared to be flush and fixable. I left the pieces on a welding table. A more skilled welder could fix it in 15 minutes, so PLEASE do so if you are such a person. Then I can remount it, even though anybody could figure out how to do it.

You rock,

That's fantastic, I suspect we can scare up a welder this evening to make the miter mount repair. On to the 220V drop next.

@jwb I don't see a problem with florescent in that room, I don't know how we would accomplish a better lighting scheme with out investing a lot of money in that, and in my opinion I would rather see it go to other things.

As of last night I think that the classroom/family room is coming together quite nicely. We gained Mikes bench and some of the component drawers are starting to get taken off the junk shelves and brought out which I think is great.

I would like to see a good amount of electronic parts there for people to hack with. We can put together a decent component list using jameco grab bags for ~100 dollars. If we look at this as a consumable resource then I think it can last for some time, and we will avoid the problem of if parts are missing it's not because people didn't put them back, it's because people used them. If we put a little collection bin in the area and you end up taking 5 resistors a few caps and a chip or two throw in some money to help re-stock it for future use.

I'm not sure if this is the best place to post bad things as well, but in the recent heavy rains we've discovered some new parts of the roof that leak. Unfortunately the newly acquired sander was sitting directly under one of these spots. Please be aware that a bit West of the South East corner along the South wall of the new shop area, there are two big patches in the roof where former venting or something was removed, these patches leak quite a bit.

Sander_all_rusty.JPG.jpg (44.7 KiB) Viewed 2320 times

On a related note, while I was removing the rust and putting a fresh coat of wax on the sander tables I took a look at some of the other wood working tables and found some damage that could easily be avoided. Please be aware, and remind guests and others that under no circumstanced should a cold beverage ever be set on a cast iron tool surface. It's great to be able to socialize in the space and have drinks in the space (safety first always) but many of the tools are very susceptible to moisture damage, and yes setting a beer can on a table just for a minute can damage it.